Wedding to Remember Finalists: Ryan and Taylor

• Bride to be – hometown: Shrewsbury, MA
• Groom to be – hometown: Agawam, MA
• Branch of the Military and Title: Army National Guard, Platoon Leader
• Where you met: UMass, Amherst
• First date: Mulino's, Northampton
• In 5 words or less – how you knew she was the one: I couldn't live without her
• In 5 words or less – how you knew he was the one: We're meant to be together
• Date of engagement: July 4, 2012

Gallery: Ryan and Taylor

Wedding to Remember

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – Most love stories don't start with the word "No," but Ryan McLane was determined to persevere, even when Taylor Lincoln turned him down twice.

"I ended up asking her out on a date," said McLane. "She told me she had homework to do. She told me she had homework the second time, and I think the third time she finally said yes."

In her defense, Lincoln says she didn't realize it was her future husband she was turning down. But then, who would?

"Honestly, I was a sophomore in college, I never thought, like this is going to be the man I marry," said Lincoln. "Everyone goes to college and dreams of meeting their future husband, but I did not know that this would be it!"

And truth-be-told, McLane didn't realize the relationship this would become either, but as they fell in love, Ryan realized he had a special girl.

"At one point, I was really sick," McLane said. "She took care of me, took me to the hospital, stayed with me, and I that point, I think I knew that it was a little more than just hanging out."

McLane was part of the ROTC in college and wanted to go into Infantry.  He joined the Army National Guard, and last year was deployed to Afghanistan.  To stay connected, they had a strategy.

"She got me in to running," said McLane. "So what we did was we had a running plan that we would do together."

"Basically, we did a training program, and on the weekends, we did our long runs," said Lincoln. "He would tell me how miserable it was over there because he did three-hour runs on a treadmill, and I was like oh yeah I did my nice run along the lake in Shrewsbury."

Lincoln 's interest in running began years before when her brother developed cancer.  He's recovered, but she still runs for Dana Farber.  Now, McLane runs too. It's one of the many reasons he loves her.

"She's inspired a lot of people," said McLane.

Two months ago, on July 4, Lincoln she inspired McLane to propose on the beach in Hyannis. He only had to ask once.

And while you could joke that he lost his independence on the Fourth of July, McLane doesn't see it that way.

"She's funny, she's sweet, she's obviously funny and she's really, really down-to-Earth and she cares enough to like me, so..." said McLane.

Cox Media Group